A new career for Older Daughter

I've been making a few oblique references to some exciting developments with Older Daughter, so here is what's happening.

You might remember her accident on New Year's Eve in which she touched the router with the tip of her index finger, which mangled her fingertip. This resulted in a painful and lengthy recovery (you don't appreciate how often you use your index finger until you can't). The incident effectively put an end to her woodworking career, especially since the business was no longer as profitable as it once was.

Now let's go back to a year before that, during a couple of months bracketing late 2024 and early 2025. At that time she was attending the necessary coursework to become a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA). She aced the coursework, the practicum, and the final exam, but didn't start work as a CNA at a local facility until March, after she had finished up a few wholesale orders with the woodcraft business.

Her new job was part-time, since she was still running the woodcraft business, but she got enough experience to know she's both good at, and thoroughly enjoys, the profession. She has a gift she inherited from Don; namely, the ability to emote with patients to know what kind of approach to take. Sometimes she has to be tough, sometimes funny, sometimes sympathetic, sometimes firm.

A true story from when she was working the week-long practicum at a rehab facility in another city: A woman had just entered the facility who (to put it mildly) didn't want to be there. The other CNAs were treating her very kindly and patiently, trying to settle her into the routine.

The first time Older Daughter went in to assist the lady out of bed, the other woman snarled, "I hate it here! I don't want to be here!"

Older Daughter started with the trite surface-level empathy. "I understand..."

But this lady was having none of it. "No, you don't understand."

Older Daughter realized this lady was right, so she said (pardon the language), "You're right. I don't understand. It sucks that you have to be here, doesn't it?"

Startled, the other woman replied, "Yeah! It does suck! You're right!"

And from then on, she and this other woman were friends, and the lady was able to start establishing herself in the facility. What the woman needed was affirmation and sympathy, but not the syrupy-sweet kind she was getting from the other staff members. She needed something hard-hitting and truthful.

That's what I mean when I say Older Daughter has the talent for knowing what kind of approach to take with individual patients. Whether it's belting out the lyrics to "Rawhide" with an old cowboy as she pushes his wheelchair down a hallway, or gently untangling knotted hair for a woman who takes pride in her appearance, the patients absolutely adore her.

After seeing the way the CNAs work in my mom's nursing home (they run the place!), I told Older Daughter, "You're doing a good thing." Sometimes she would come home discouraged or even in tears about something that happened, but I tell her, "Think about what you're doing. You're giving these people dignity at a time in their lives when their dignity is at a very low ebb."

Anyway, bottom line, working as a CNA has awakened an interest in going further and getting her nursing degree. For the last year or so, she's been thinking about this possibility (becoming a CNA was the first step), but she was stymied because she wasn't ready to give up the woodcraft business yet, and moving closer to nursing school while trying to drag an entire shop of power tools in her wake was turning into a logistical nightmare.

That's why injuring her finger may have been a blessing in disguise. She was able to graciously exit the woodcraft business and turn fully to health care as a career.

This was reinforced by an extremely interesting and almost amusing thing that happened while she was getting patched up in the emergency room on New Year's Eve.

Understand that she came in directly from the shop when she injured her finger. She was covered in blood and sawdust, and as she and Don walked into the emergency room, she was trailing sawdust like the character Pigpen in the old Peanuts cartoons.

The nurse said, "I need to take your vitals. I forgot to grab them earlier because we usually have an ER tech, but she's not here tonight."

Older Daughter mentioned that her blood pressure tends to spike when it's being measured (she inherited Don's "white-coat syndrome"), and when she practiced blood-pressure readings in her clinicals, everyone got wildly different results.

The nurse was a little startled and asked "In what context?" That's when Older Daughter explained that she's a CNA.

The nurse said, "A real CNA? As in, licensed?" Older Daughter said yes.

The nurse said, half-jokingly, "If you need any more work around here, let me know."  Older Daughter said, "I might. I'm not getting many hours in my current job."

Then, I kid you not, the nurse disappeared and returned with the staffing manager, who came over with a big smile to introduce herself. Now remember, Older Daughter is covered in blood and sawdust, and in a considerable amount of pain. She apologized for her appearance, and the head nurse said, "Oh no, that's fine! So you're a certified CNA right now?" Older Daughter affirmed this, and the head nurse said, "They're currently looking for CNAs in the emergency room. We could train you to be an ER tech and teach you to do IVs." She handed Older Daughter her business card and urged her to stay in touch.

We got a chuckle over this impromptu interview, but Older Daughter couldn't follow up on the offer until her finger had healed sufficiently. Later she applied for the position, but learned that it paid less than she was getting at her original CNA job, so she declined it.

However the incident sparked a series of events which culminated this past week with some exciting developments:

• She applied to an extremely respected nursing school and was accepted. The acceptance happened about a month ago, and last week she met with an academic adviser to map out the appropriate coursework.

• She applied for a job as a CNA at an upscale facility in the same city and was offered a full-time job, with the understanding that her hours will need to be worked around her class schedule. (Apparently the facility deals with nursing students all the time, so this was nothing unusual.)

• She took the math placement exam and was deemed qualified for college math (this one had her worried).

• She found a beautiful studio apartment in a safe and enviable part of town, with beautiful trees outside her huge window. The apartment comes with a dishwasher, refrigerator, and washer/dryer. The price isn't bad, either, and it's only about half a mile from campus.

In short, it's been a tremendously exciting time for her. She's starting to pack and sort through her things, deciding what to keep and what to sell at our future yard sale. She'll be moving to her new apartment after May 1, when the current tenants vacate the premises. She'll work full-time over the summer until school starts in late August.

She's so excited about this new chapter of her life!